The Computational Drug Discovery Chemistry Jobs List: 15 positions

The Computational Drug Discovery Chemistry Jobs List has 15 positions. This list is curated by Joel Walker. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 159 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself)  has 159 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 159 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 159 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: REP edition

Via a letter to the CEO of the New England Confectionery Company, Inc. (the makers of Necco Wafers and Sweethearts), this blistering letter: 

1.    You did not take effective measures to exclude pests from the manufacturing, processing, packing, and holding areas and to protect against the contamination of food on the premises by pests as required by 21 CFR 117.35(c). Specifically, during the inspection, FDA investigators noted evidence of rodent activity in the following food storage areas in your facility:

Rodent excreta pellets (REPs) too numerous to count (TNTC) and evidence of wide spread rodent activity were identified in multiple areas throughout the plant, on raw material, and components of ready-to-eat (RTE) product. Specifically, our investigators noted REPs on the floor across from the “Sweethearts” production staging area, the floor of the “Sweethearts” cooling room, the floor of the peanut roasting room between pallets containing empty drums of “Mary Jane Peanut Butter”, in multiple locations on the floor of the raw material storage warehouse, in multiple locations on the floor of the finished product storage warehouse, the floor and storage racks of the second floor maintenance area, in multiple areas on the floor of the molding room and the loading dock. Ripped bags of sugar and ripped bags of almonds appearing to have been re-sealed were observed. Spilled sugar and almonds were observed on the floor. REPs were observed among spilled almonds on the floor.

My jaw has dropped TFTM (too far to measure.) Yuck.  

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News: 

• Cover: miniature mass spectrometers (article by Celia Henry Arnaud)
• Long, detailed article by Rick Mullin about scientists running for office
• The final REACH deadline is arriving, and companies are still scrambling (article by Alex Scott) 
• The structures of organic solar cells get more and more fascinating (article by Katherine Bourzac) 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 550 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 550 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List finished with 590 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 25 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 25 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Memorial Day; back tomorrow

Beverly National Cemetery (Beverly, NJ)
credit: VA.gov

Today is Memorial Day in the United States; it's a national holiday.

Back tomorrow.

View From My Hood?: Philadelphia, PA edition

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

How do you get better at delegation?

In a Wired article about former FBI director and current special counsel Robert Mueller:

...Mueller was a star in his Officer Candidate School training class. “He was a cut above,” recalls Phil Kellogg, who had followed one of his fraternity brothers into the Marines after graduating from the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. Kellogg, who went through training with Mueller, remembers Mueller racing another candidate on an obstacle course—and losing. It’s the only time he can remember Mueller being bested. “He was a natural athlete and natural student,” Kellogg says. “I don’t think he had a hard day at OCS, to be honest.”  

There was, it turned out, only one thing he was bad at—and it was a failing that would become familiar to legions of his subordinates in the decades to come: He received a D in delegation...

I would love to know what it takes to get an "A" in delegation in Officer Candidate School. It seems to me that delegation is really knowing about what your team's strengths are, and knowing which items the leader of an organization needs to focus on, and getting follow-through from your team. Not to get too technical, but that's really hard.

Readers, have you seen people who are good at delegation in your time in academia or industry? Or have you seen mostly people like Robert Mueller? How do you get better? 

Why there are shortages of generic sterile injectables

This Fortune article by Erica Fry about Pfizer/Hospira's generic sterile injectable shortage/manufacturing problems is very informative, and I feel that it's the first piece to get the economics of the field (which seem wildly apparent to me) exactly right: 

The medications most vulnerable to running short have a few things in common: They are generic, high-volume, and low-margin for their makers—not the cutting-edge specialty drugs that pad pharmaceutical companies’ bottom lines. Companies have little incentive to make the workhorse drugs we use most. 

Congress’s response was to pass legislation in 2012, requiring manufacturers to give more notice ahead of anticipated shortages—but that seems to miss the point: What we’ve been witnessing, in slow motion, is market failure. It boils down to a lack of economic incentives. 

Manufacturers of widely used, inexpensive drugs make relatively little off the products, whose prices are largely determined in contract negotiations between drugmakers and group purchasing organizations (or GPOs), which exist to broker better deals for hospitals. That makes this a high-volume, low-cost game, a reality that has driven consolidation in the market. It’s also a highly regulated and somewhat costly industry, which has chased some companies out. The economics make it hard to invest in the business or in building supply chain redundancy. When shortages happen, the financial losses tend to be marginal and temporary; there are too few players for customers to take their business elsewhere. What’s left is a system with just enough inventory to get by if nothing goes wrong. 

Last year, a lot went wrong.

It seems to me that a field that relies on low margins and high volumes and high regulatory standards and high capital requirements will have a low number of players, and a very low number of entrants.  

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 150 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself)  has 150 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

21 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 13 new positions posted for May 23 and 8 new positions for May 20. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 158 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 158 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

"Bad Blood" quote of the day

I'm reading John Carreyrou's "Bad Blood" - it's awfully good. The last quote I highlighted: 

One of the assistants kept track of when employees arrived and when they left so that Elizabeth knew exactly how many hours everyone put in. To entice people into working longer days, she had dinner catered every evening. The food often didn't arrive until eight or eight thirty, which meant that the earliest you got out of the office was ten. 

That's diabolical. 

People are bailing from San Francisco?

Via SF Gate:

Rent a moving truck from Las Vegas to San Jose and you'll pay about $100. In the opposite direction, the same truck will cost you 16 times that, or nearly $2,000. 

What accounts for the difference? The simple laws of supply and demand, says economist Mark J. Perry. With so many people leaving the Bay Area, there are not enough rental trucks to go around. Perry, a University of Michigan professor, published his findings in a new study with public policy think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI). 

CBS News reported recently that operators of a San Jose U-Haul business have trouble getting their rental vans back "because so many are on a one-way ticket out of town." The revelation inspired Perry to compare the costs of U-Haul rentals for trucks leaving San Jose versus those heading into the city. 

Silicon Valley has arguably one of the highest costs of living in the nation. The cost of leaving isn't cheap, either. Perry tracked the costs of renting a 26-foot U-Haul truck to San Jose from six cities deemed destinations for those moving out of the Bay Area — Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Nashville and Atlanta. 

In every model, the price of renting a truck outbound from San Jose was at least double the amount of renting the same vehicle in the opposite direction. See the prices in the above gallery. 

I guess I would like to know who is leaving San Francisco, and who is staying. The income level of the people outmigrating would be interesting to know. 

This week's C&EN

A few articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: Interesting long cover on cannabis farming by Melody Bomgardner
• Also, an ending call-out to chemists to join the field
• The latest Stereo Chemistry podcast, on bones (by Kerri Jansen)
• Cool story about a U.S. Army bioengineer (article by Prachi Patel)
• Alán Aspuru-Guzik has a quantum computing startup? (article by Sam Lemonick) 
• Hanford researchers demonstrate a nuclear waste vitrification process (article by Jeff Johnson) 
• Some d00d answering reader questions 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 550 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 550 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List finished with 590 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 25 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 25 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Postdoctoral position: Boron Specialties, Pittsburgh, PA

From the inbox, an industrial postdoctoral position at Boron Specialties:

Boron Specialties (a small, woman‐owned, Pittsburgh‐based fine chemical company) is seeking a postdoc for a 2‐year position, with the possibility for continuation thereafter. Successful hires will be asked to split time between analytical method development and synthetic chemistry (primarily inorganic) across a number of scales in conjunction with senior scientific staff. We seek energetic, enthusiastic applicants excited about playing an integral role in the growth of a small company. 

Requirements:

1. Ph. D. in chemistry (inorganic preferred) with a publication record to indicate achievement.
2. Willing and able to participate in a robust safety culture and comply with all environmental, health, safety, and security rules, regulations, and laws.
3. Experience with multinuclear NMR, FT‐IR, MS, ICP, and GC.
4. Experience with highly reactive, air‐sensitive, and toxic materials, and an ability to safely manipulate materials under air‐free conditions.
5. Willing and able to perform tasks ranging from analytical titrations to multi‐kg syntheses.
6. Demonstrated project management experience
7. Must be able to solve complex technical problems using both inductive and deductive reasoning.
8. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential to the position
9. Able to legally work in the United States

Desirable attributes:

1. Hands‐on knowledge of electro‐ and electroanalytical chemistry.
2. Strong mechanical aptitude.
3. Able to represent the company at trade shows and scientific conferences.
4. Experience in supervision and direction of junior staff / technician‐level employees.
5. Experience with standard operating procedure development.

Send a CV (with full publication list) and contact information for 2 references to Bill Ewing (bill@boron.com).

Boron Specialties is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

Ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Paper towels

A list of small, useful things:

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• Nessa's second article in Chemistry World
• Interesting post by Kat Day on palytoxin in aquaculture
• Personal reflections from Scott Denmark on the future of organic chemistry
• This article about a way to avoid using horseshoe crab blood in endotoxin testing (and the Lilly biologist who has been championing it) was really interesting. 
• I feel the article elides the inertia associated with cGMP, but still worth a read. 
• The latest from handwavingchemistry
• Juvenile Facts about Uranus, from Science Shenanigans
• "The Chemistry of Death and Desire" (and indole)

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

Ask CJ: What prior approvals are required for lab work at your company?

From the inbox, a good safety-related question:

We recently had a minor chemical exposure incident here at Random Chemicals Inc., and the safety analysis made its way up to corporate EHS. This prompted some reviews of our lab practices and the powers that be are considering implementation of some kind of approval process for any "new" synthesis procedure. 

They are allowing us to have some feedback into how that would look, so thats nice, but of course the worry is that a lot of red tape just for starting what could be a simple reaction. Do chemists at other companies have similar approval processes? What does it look like when you want to start something new in the lab, just order the chemicals and do it, or does someone have to sign off?  

I suspect that there are bands of chemicals and types of reactions (and sizes) and someone who plans on running a 20 L fluorination probably gets a lot more attention and needs a lot more upper-management approval than someone who is planning on running a 50 mL reaction with some nBuLi. All the Dow items that came post-Sangji seem to have indicated that (for example) large companies require a lot more written procedures and warnings and checks than, say, a typical academic synthesis laboratory.

Readers, what do you think? 

Well, that's a good reason for a shortage

Via The Truth About Cars, an interesting shortage due to an industrial incident:

Ford has paused production of the F-150 at its Kansas City Assembly Plant after a fire at one of the facilities belonging a Michigan-based supplier created a parts shortage. Meridian Lightweight Technologies makes instrument panel components for the pickup.
Roughly 3,600 unionized plant workers at the Kansas City facility have been told to cool their heels at home from May 7th to 14th, according to an Automotive News report. 

A fire and series of explosions ripped through the Meridian factory last week, injuring two people and leading to the evacuation of 150 workers. The conflagration reportedly happened during a 1:30 a.m. shift change. 

Eaton Rapids City Manager Aaron Desentz told the Lansing State Journal the fire seemingly originated in an area of the plant called the “tunnel,” where workers put magnesium scraps on a conveyor belt to be melted down.

That sounds like something that might catch on fire... 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 143 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself)  has 143 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

27 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 13 new positions posted for May 16 and 14 new positions for May 12. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 153 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 153 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

17 students, 1 teacher burned in ethanol-boric acid flash fire in Nashville

From a variety of sources, including the ACS DCHAS listserv, an incident at Merrol Hyde Magnet High School in Hendersonville, TN (article by NewsChannel5): 

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. - A hazmat situation injured multiple people at Merrol Hyde Magnet High School in Hendersonville. 

An official said at least 17 students and one teacher were triaged at the scene Wednesday morning, and multiple patients were taken to area hospitals. 

Six students were treated at Tristar Hendersonville Medical Center, while five students were taken to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. 

The teacher was reportedly treated and released from Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Reports from school officials said the educator involved was a first-year chemistry teacher.

I find it grimly amusing that this article (and a number of others, including Nashville's The Tennessean) seem to believe that flames spontaneously result from the mixture of ethyl alcohol and boric acid (which was used in this case.) I don't think that's true - I think you need to light it on fire, which is probably what happened here.

Yet another incident where there was a combination of:

• fire
• alcohol 
• students being too close

that has caused injuries and teachers getting fired and lawsuits being filed in this country time and time again.

Another reminder that the American Chemical Society's Committee on Chemical Safety specifically asks teachers to discontinue the traditional Rainbow Demonstration and use the safer Flame Test.

Why don't industrial members attend ACS National Meetings?

Also in this week's C&EN, a really interesting article about new approaches to the ACS National Meeting by Kevin Edgar, the chair of the Committee on Meetings & Expositions, including this interesting paragraph:

Another M&E initiative aims to enhance industrial member attendance at ACS meetings. The proportion of industrial ACS members has dropped in recent years, and it is critically important to all of our members that we maintain strong connections to industry. We understand that much of the loss of industrial members is a result of economic trends that ACS cannot control and has a limited ability to influence. We are looking at ways to create a more inclusive industrial community at meetings, to connect with the expo, and to enhance the overall industrial member experience.

It sure seems like people in industry prefer to attend smaller conferences, even as the registration for a National Meeting (~$400) is a lot more than the $1000 or so that you'll pay for a practitioner-level conference.

I'm not sure I have a solution for the National Meeting folks, other than maybe to make them just a little less pricey. Anyone else have a better solution? 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: "Cosmetics that take on the stresses of modern life" (article by Marc Reisch) 
• Takeda bought Shire (article by Lisa Jarvis) 
• EPA to ban methylene chloride as a paint stripper (article by Britt Erickson) 
• Academic chemists moving to Canada (article by Sharon Oosthoek)
• Cool article on new fluorine chemistry from the Gouverneur group (article by Bethany Halford) 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 549 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 549 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List finished with 590 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

View From Your Hood: West Coast tower edition

Credit: @HartwigGroup

Via Twitter, from the Hartwig Group: "#WestCoastBestCoast I never get sick of this view #viewfrommyhood Ok fine, actually view from the balcony."

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.) 

Grad students: Who wants to write for C&EN?

From the inbox:

C&EN is looking for grad students to write about their experiences for the magazine. To be considered for this paid opportunity, send a roughly 250-word essay on an issue you face as a graduate student to cenprojects@acs.org. Include your name, university, country, and year in school. Deadline is May 31.

Best wishes to those interested. 

The Layoffs Will Be Projected

A grim tidbit from the New York Times about the work environment at Nike (amidst an article about sexual harassment by Julie Creswell, Kevin Draper and Rachel Abrams):

...The callousness that some women experienced extended at times to the work force at large, employees said. By the summer of 2016, for instance, Nike had decided to stop making golf balls, golf clubs and other equipment. Members of the division were summoned to a meeting inside the Clubhouse, the nickname for one of Nike’s buildings. 

There, horrified employees watched their names appear on a large screen, directing them to different rooms, where some would be laid off, according to one person who attended the meeting and two people who were told of it. The person said it left employees with the impression they were being let go via PowerPoint presentation....

(Emphasis mine) I suppose I understand the need for some level of efficiency in the case of layoffs of multiple people, and the logistical difficulty in separating large groups of people in a corporate headquarters. But this just seems rather cruel - surely envelopes (all the same size, all the same color) or some other paper-based mechanism would be less horrifying? 

Dr. Phil Smith - Novartis Statement

Novartis statement - 17:15 CET:

In February 2017, Novartis entered into an indefinite employment agreement with Dr. Phil Smith. With the recent advances in photoredox chemistry, Novartis believed that Dr. Smith could advise the company as to how Novartis might approach certain organic chemistry matters, including iridium photocatalysis.

The agreement was for an indefinite term, and paid Dr. Smith 9,000 USD per month. In March 2017, Novartis had its first meeting with Dr. Smith under this agreement. Following this initial meeting, Novartis determined that business conditions completely unrelated to Dr. Smith's skills in the laboratory had changed, and that Novartis financial conditions required the decision to not engage further.

As there was no contract and happily Dr. Smith could be terminated for any reason, payments were stopped immediately in March 2017.

with no apologies to Novartis

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 132 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself)  has 132 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

23 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 17 new positions posted for May 9 and 6 new positions for May 3. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 150 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 150 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

"The truth is, all of nature contains chemicals"

Unusual tack for a consumer products company. Here's hoping S.C. Johnson has success with this.

(TIL Fisk Johnson has a Ph.D. in physics.)

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: Ryan Cross on efforts to improve CAR-T
• The chemistry of 'smoke taint' in wines (article by Lauren Wolf)
• Efforts to make sterically hindered amines (article by Tien Nguyen)
• kudos for including "pluckable" in the article
• Manganese amination chemistry from the White lab (article by Stu Borman)
• I think this idea of incorporating labs into escape house games is pretty clever (article by Tien Nguyen)
• The latest podcast from the C&EN team (I'm in there somewhere, I think)  
• "How to fit in when you’re in a new environment" (by ACS Careers)

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 548 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 548 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On May 2, 2017, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 590 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Adjunct position: Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA), fall 2018

From the inbox, an adjunct position at Evergreen State College:

Chemistry 2018-19 Adjunct Faculty 

The Evergreen State College seeks a visiting faculty colleague to teach General Chemistry I, II, and III with lab in part-time courses in fall, winter, and spring quarters for our Evening and Weekend Studies program. Experience with student-centered pedagogy is highly desirable. Prior experience teaching STEM fields to diverse and underserved students, including returning adults, is also desirable. The course will be offered Mon./Wed. evenings, 6-10 pm for 6 credits per quarter.

Link here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Temperature probes

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• Chemistry Blog needs you!
• This 30-year battle over who gets credit over a basic combinatorial chemistry technique is pretty remarkable. 
• anyone seen "The Duellists"? for some reason, I am reminded of that...
• Nice post from Molecular Dreams
• Sustainable Nano on hearing aids
• "Data thug" is an interesting term...
• Fascinating post on burn rates from Perlara

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

University of Minnesota biochemistry professor investigated for sexual harassment

It's not every day that you read this in the pages of a local alternative weekly (by Micah Emmel-Duke; via City Pages, the alt-weekly for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.): 

...“When are we going to have sex?” 

This is how University of Minnesota biochemistry professor Gianluigi Veglia often talked to and about the students and employees in his laboratory, according to two sexual misconduct investigations. His name is well known in his field. His curriculum vitae is 39 honor-filled pages long and meticulously lists the millions of dollars in grant funding he’s received through the years. He has taught at the U of M, which has shared in the bounty of his grant money, since 2000. 

“Take off your shirt so I can just see a little.” 

Accusers and witnesses detail many other instances of misconduct. Among the allegations: He told lab members he only hired them for their looks; he suggested women’s presentations would be more effective if they dressed in more revealing clothing; he told his female lab members (whom he frequently called “Veglia chicks”) to flirt with prospective students to entice them to join the lab; he even threatened to withhold Ph.D.s if complaints were filed. 

Veglia told investigators he simply hadn’t made many of these comments. Others, he said, were misinterpreted jokes or the vengeful lies of disgruntled and unsuccessful students. He declined to comment for this story. 

...Following the investigation, he was given typical sanctions, like attending sexual harassment training and meeting with his boss. A bigger blow was his removal as the director of the university’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center and the accompanying annual salary bonus of $10,000. 

Other sanctions sound tough but are not as harsh as they might seem. 

For example, Veglia isn’t allowed to supervise undergraduate students through the 2019-20 school year and was also removed from the two graduate programs he taught in, with his readmission to the programs contingent on his conduct, including “no reports of sexual harassment.” 

Veglia can still do research with graduate students and others, which means his federal funding will keep flowing into the school....

Here's the official investigation (what you can read, anyway). It's pretty remarkable to me that he wasn't fired. The miracles of tenure...

(The author of the piece is willing to be contacted about other instances of sexual harassment in the sciences, especially in Minnesota. micah.emmel.duke@gmail.com; Signal: 612-293-5088)

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 127 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself)  has 127 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

24 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 24 new positions posted for April 29.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 149 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 149 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Johnson and Johnson has a museum?

Via the New York Times:

Margaret Gurowitz, 56, is the chief historian for Johnson & Johnson at its headquarters in New Brunswick, N.J. 

What does a chief historian do? 

I create and organize exhibits at the company’s museum, “Our Story at the Powerhouse,” which is located in the 1907 Powerhouse building, including developing new exhibits in medical fields where the company has made an impact. One current exhibit is about medicine in World War I, and our main exhibit area includes more than 100 vintage and modern-day Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages tins and packages. It also includes rare surgical artifacts, large-scale vintage advertisements dating back to 1886 — the year the company was founded — and displays of some of the company’s best-known products. 

Are there other duties? 

I also oversee the company’s more than 19,000 artifacts, and decide on new acquisitions. I also maintain the company’s online museum, ourstory.jnj.com, which uses photographs, music and audio to tell the company’s story, and the company’s historical blog, kilmerhouse.com. We also partner with other museums and institutions to make the company’s history of innovative health care better known to the public.

 Gotta say, I don't think those virtual biotechs will have a museum...

This week's C&EN

A few of this week's articles in this week's issues of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: a fascinating story by Celia Henry Arnaud about the detection of drug metabolites in wastewater
• Great opening line, btw
• Cool article about hypersonic rocket fuel (article by Mitch Jacoby)
• Profile of UK chemist David Smith; a worthwhile read (article by Katharine Sanderson)
• Mechanochemistry takes silicon off one layer at a time (article by Mitch Jacoby)
• Kalexsyn purchased by Italian firm (article by Michael McCoy)
• A comment from the chair of the Committee on Technician Affairs, Aimée L. Tomlinson
• Lots of reader response on geoengineering.

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 545 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 545 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On May 2, 2017, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 590 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Try the open thread.

Want to talk about starting your new group? That open discussion is here.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 25 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 25 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.